I think identifying strongly as white is a very typical American thing. For most of us in Europe, I think we identify mainly as our nationality. I see myself primarily as Norwegian.

When I see the American debate on white and black, I cannot say I can easily identify with what Americans describe as white. In a sense "white" in is really a label on a cultural subset. It might have been better to perhaps replace the word "white" with WASP in most of these cases as that is often what is being described.

Obviously I can see myself in the mirror and see that I look white. But so can a Jew or Sami. Yet, in an American context with the metaphysical idea of "white" neither are white. There are so many connotations to the word "white" in America today that it means so much more than simply looking white.

Thus when I write about black and white, I really using those labels in an American context. I am not American and I don't live in America, so I don't identify with the American concept of white. But that is no different for say a Nigerian or South African. They may identify ethnically as Igbo or Cape colored but it doesn't matter how they see themselves where they are from. In America they will become "black".

I watched an interview with an African-American girl who grew up in Japan.... which I guess makes her African-American-Japanese or something. She might have looked black but never really learned to identify as such. In Japan you are either a Japanese or a foreigner. She was basically a foreigner. There was no clear distinction between different foreigners.

Thus when she came to America late in life she found it hard that looking black meant you had to also act and identify that way. She had to basically "learn" to be black because all of society around her has expectations of her centered on her skin color. Trying to be somebody she wasn't made her exhausted and made her leave eventually.

This applies to anyone of us with a particular skin color. When I come to the US, I am immediately "white" and expected to act "white" and have "white" values.

So in short I obviously look white but I don't identify as white American.